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Abstract:

An aggregation of functionality related to a product within an electronic
catalog hosted by a wholesaler web system is provided by presenting on a
client computing device a webpage in which a single product is directly
associated with a single access point. The single access point provides a
means by which plural wholesaler web system functions related to the
single product are made available to a consumer. A listing of the plural
wholesaler web system functions related to the single product is
displayed within the webpage in response to an activation of the single
access point by the consumer. In response to a selection by the consumer
from the displayed listing the wholesaler web system initiates a
performance of the one of the plural wholesaler web system functions so
selected.

Claims:

1. A non-transient, computer readable media having stored thereon
instructions for providing access to an aggregation of functionality
related to a product within an electronic catalog hosted by a wholesaler
web system, the instructions performing steps comprising: causing a
webpage to be displayed on a client computing device, the webpage
comprising a product listing area in which is presented a plurality of
products that are available for purchase and wherein each of the
plurality of products in the product listing area of the webpage is
directly associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of access
points, each of the plurality of access points providing access to a
subset of wholesaler web system functions that have been determined to be
applicable to the corresponding one of the plurality of products in the
product listing area of the webpage; in response to an activation of a
one of the plurality of access points corresponding to a one of the
plurality of products in the product listing area of the webpage causing
a plurality of user interface elements, each corresponding to a one of a
subset of the wholesaler web system functions that have been determined
to be applicable to the one of the plurality of products in the product
listing area of the webpage corresponding to the one of the plurality of
access points activated, to be presented on the client computing device;
and in response to a selection of a one of the plurality of user
interface elements from the presented plurality of user interface
elements causing a performance by the wholesaler web system of a one of
the wholesaler web system functions that corresponds to the selected one
of the plurality of user interface elements.

2. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the
plurality of access points is activated in response to user selection
action.

3. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 2, wherein the user
selection action is at least one of a input device selection, a client
computing device tap, a client computing device movement; or a client
computing device touch.

4. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 2, wherein each of the
plurality of access points is activated in response to at least one of an
input device hover over action.

5. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the
plurality of access points comprises a information representative of a
corresponding one of the plurality of products in the product listing
area of the webpage.

6. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the
plurality of access points is directly associated with a corresponding
one of the plurality of products in the product listing area of the
webpage by being positioned in the vicinity of at least one of an image,
title, product number, or description for the corresponding one of the
plurality of products in the product listing area of the webpage.

7. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the
plurality of access points comprises an activatable selection button to
invoke access to the subset of wholesaler web system functions when
selected.

8. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the
plurality of access points comprises an icon that is activatable to
invoke a menu, the menu comprising the plurality of user interface
elements.

9. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the
plurality of user interface elements is selectable to initiate a
performance by the wholesaler web system of at least two of: displaying
of a Product Details page for the one of the plurality of products in the
product listing area of the webpage corresponding to the one of the
plurality of access points activated; displaying of a detailed
description for the one of the plurality of products in the product
listing area of the webpage corresponding to the one of the plurality of
access points activated; displaying of a catalog page from a catalog on
which the resides the one of the plurality of products in the product
listing area of the webpage corresponding to the one of the plurality of
access points activated; transmitting a message to a recipient containing
information for the one of the plurality of products in the product
listing area of the webpage corresponding to the one of the plurality of
access points activated; adding the one of the plurality of products in
the product listing area of the webpage corresponding to the one of the
plurality of access points activated to a list; adding the one of the
plurality of products in the product listing area of the webpage
corresponding to the one of the plurality of access points activated to a
schedule for repeat purchase; displaying an MSDS sheet for the one of the
plurality of products in the product listing area of the webpage
corresponding to the one of the plurality of access points activated;
displaying accessories for the one of the plurality of products in the
product listing area of the webpage corresponding to the one of the
plurality of access points activated; displaying real-time availability
for the one of the plurality of products in the product listing area of
the webpage corresponding to the one of the plurality of access points
activated; displaying a list of locations at which the one of the
plurality of products in the product listing area of the webpage
corresponding to the one of the plurality of access points activated is
available; displaying an indicator as to whether the one of the plurality
of products in the product listing area of the webpage corresponding to
the one of the plurality of access points activated has been previously
purchased by the customer; displaying repair information for the one of
the plurality of products in the product listing area of the webpage
corresponding to the one of the plurality of access points activated;
displaying at least one of rating or recommendation information for the
one of the plurality of products in the product listing area of the
webpage corresponding to the one of the plurality of access points
activated; displaying shipping information for the one of the plurality
of products in the product listing area of the webpage corresponding to
the one of the plurality of access points activated; displaying at least
one of a local wholesaler establishment availability or pricing for the
one of the plurality of products in the product listing area of the
webpage corresponding to the one of the plurality of access points
activated; providing a user selectable link for sharing at least one of a
navigatable link or information regarding the one of the plurality of
products in the product listing area of the webpage corresponding to the
one of the plurality of access points activated with at least one of
another user or another webpage; displaying an indication of a redeemable
reward value associated with the one of the plurality of products in the
product listing area of the webpage corresponding to the one of the
plurality of access points activated; displaying information regarding at
least one of the manufacturer or wholesaler name for the one of the
plurality of products in the product listing area of the webpage
corresponding to the one of the plurality of access points activated; or
displaying a discount offer associated with the one of the plurality of
products in the product listing area of the webpage corresponding to the
one of the plurality of access points activated.

10. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the
plurality of user interface elements are presented in a pop-up window
within the client computing device.

11. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the
plurality of user interface elements are presented in a pop-up window.

12. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the
plurality of user interface elements are presented in an area of the
webpage.

13. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the
wholesaler web system performs the one of the wholesaler web system
functions by redirecting a browser of the client machine to a further
webpage.

14. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the
further webpage is located within the wholesaler web system.

15. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the
further webpage is located within a web system of a third party.

16. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein
presentation of the plurality of products in the he product listing area
is the result of a recommendation calculation by the webpage.

17. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the
instructions cause the webpage to be displayed in response to a search
query.

18. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 17, wherein the
search query comprises at least one search term entered into a free-form,
text receiving query field.

19. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 17, wherein the
search query comprises a selection of at least one search term
pre-populated on a previously presented web page.

Description:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims the benefit of and is a continuation of
U.S. application Ser. No. 13/530,632, filed on Jun. 22, 2012, which
application claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U.S.
application Ser. No. 13/354,773, filed on Jan. 20, 2012, which
application claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U.S.
application Ser. No. 13/195,158, filed on Aug. 1, 2011, which application
claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.
12/175,598, filed on Jul. 18, 2008, the disclosures of which are
incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Currently, e-commerce related websites, whether business to
business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C), provide many methods for a
customer to navigate a website to access functionality. Such
functionality includes, but is not limited to, category drill down
searching, parametric searching, key word searching, cross reference
searching, accessing sales and promotional fliers, viewing personal order
histories, etc. While navigating a website, any number of options are
also made available for the customer to "act upon" a particular product.
For example, the customer may want to add a product to a to-do list, add
a product to a shopping cart, send an email to another person about a
product, proceed to a Detail Page for a product, request an MSDS sheet
for a product, etc. However, current websites place this product related
functionality in many different places on any given webpage or on
different webpages throughout a website. This non-uniform placement of
product related functionality thus yields an inconsistent customer
experience by, for example, making it difficult for the customer to find
and utilize desired product related functionality on a given webpage
and/or within a given website. As will be appreciated, lower usage of
this valuable product related functionality results in lower sales for a
vendor/wholesaler as well as lower customer satisfaction.

SUMMARY

[0003] An aggregation of functionality related to a product within an
electronic catalog hosted by a wholesaler web system is provided by
presenting on a client computing device a webpage in which a single
product is directly associated with a single access point. The single
access point provides a means by which plural wholesaler web system
functions related to the single product are made available to a consumer.
A listing of the plural wholesaler web system functions related to the
single product is displayed within the webpage in response to an
activation of the single access point by the consumer. In response to a
selection by the consumer from the displayed listing the wholesaler web
system initiates a performance of the one of the plural wholesaler web
system functions so selected.

[0004] A better understanding of the objects, advantages, features,
properties and relationships of the system and method described
hereinafter will be obtained from the following detailed description and
accompanying drawings which set forth illustrative embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] For a better understanding of the system and method for providing
access to product related electronic catalog functionality described
hereinafter, reference may be had to preferred embodiments shown in the
following drawings in which:

[0006] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary system in which
the inventive concepts may be employed; and

[0008] Turning to the drawings an exemplary system and method for
providing access to product related electronic catalog functionality is
now described. As illustrated in FIG. 1, an exemplary system in which the
subject inventive concepts may be employed includes a processing device
20, illustrated in detail by way of example only as a computer system,
that is provided with executable instructions to, for example, provide a
means for a customer to access a website, via a computer system/server
68, and thereby browse webpages and goods/services offered for sale by a
wholesaler, retailer, vender, etc., (collectively "wholesaler") and
access electronic commerce related functionality. Generally, the computer
executable instructions reside in program modules which may include
routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that
perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the processing
device 20 may be embodied in any device having the ability to execute
instructions such as, by way of example, a personal computer, mainframe
computer, personal-digital assistant (PDA), cellular telephone, or the
like. Furthermore, while described and illustrated in the context of a
single processing device 20, those skilled in the art will also
appreciate that the various tasks described hereinafter may be practiced
in a distributed environment having multiple processing devices linked
via a local or wide-area network whereby the executable instructions may
be associated with and/or executed by one or more multiple processing
devices.

[0009] For performing the various tasks in accordance with the executable
instructions, a processing device 20 may include a processing unit 22 and
a system memory 24 which may be linked via a bus 26. Without limitation,
the bus 26 may be a memory bus, a peripheral bus, and/or a local bus
using any of a variety of well known bus architectures. As needed for any
particular purpose, the system memory 24 may include read only memory
(ROM) 28 and/or random access memory (RAM) 30. Additional memory devices
may also be made accessible to the processing device 20 by means of, for
example, a hard disk drive interface 32, a magnetic disk drive interface
34, and/or an optical disk drive interface 36. As will be understood,
these devices, which would be linked to the system bus 26, respectively
allow for reading from and writing to a hard disk 38, reading from or
writing to a removable magnetic disk 40, and for reading from or writing
to a removable optical disk 42, such as a CD/DVD ROM or other optical
media. The drive interfaces and their associated computer-readable media
allow for the nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data
structures, program modules and other data for the processing device 20.
Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that other types of
computer readable media that can store data may be used for this same
purpose. Examples of such media devices include, but are not limited to,
magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli
cartridges, random access memories, nano-drives, memory sticks, and other
read/write and/or read-only memories.

[0010] A number of program modules, i.e., computer executable
instructions, may be stored in one or more of the memory/media devices of
the processing device 20. For example, a basic input/output system (BIOS)
44, containing the basic routines that help to transfer information
between elements within the processing device 20, such as during
start-up, may be stored in ROM 28. Similarly, the RAM 30, hard drive 38,
and/or peripheral memory devices may be used to store computer executable
instructions comprising an operating system 46, one or more applications
programs 48 (such as a Web browser), other program modules 50, and/or
program data 52. Still further, computer-executable instructions may be
downloaded to the processing device 20 as needed, for example, via a
network connection.

[0011] The customer may enter commands and information into the processing
device 20 through input devices such as a keyboard 54 and/or a pointing
device 56. While not illustrated, other input devices may include a
microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, etc. These and other
input/output devices would typically be connected to the processing unit
22 by means of an interface 58 which, in turn, would be coupled to the
bus 26. Input devices may be connected to the processor 22 using
interfaces such as, for example, a parallel port, game port, firewire, or
a universal serial bus (USB). To view information from the processing
device 20, a monitor 60 or other type of display device may also be
connected to the bus 26 via an interface, such as a video adapter 62. In
addition to the monitor 60, the processing device 20 may also include
other peripheral output devices, not shown, such as speakers and
printers.

[0012] As further illustrated in FIG. 1, the processing device 20 may also
utilize logical connections to one or more remote processing devices,
such as the wholesaler system/server 68. The remote processing devices
may have an associated data repository in which is stored data such as
customer/company information, electronic catalog pages, etc. While the
remote processing device 68 has been illustrated in the exemplary form of
a server computer supporting conventional e-commerce type functionality,
e.g., category drill down searching, parametric searching, key word
searching, cross reference searching, accessing sales and promotional
fliers, product ordering, viewing personal order histories, etc, it will
be appreciated that the remote processing devices 68 may be any type of
device having processing capabilities. As such, it will again be
appreciated that the remote processing device 68 need not be implemented
as a single device but may be implemented in a manner such that the tasks
performed by the remote processing device 68 are distributed to a
plurality of processing devices linked through a communication network.

[0013] For performing tasks as needed, the remote processing device 68 may
include many or all of the elements described above relative to the
processing device 20. Communications between the processing device 20 and
the remote processing device 68 may be exchanged via a further processing
device, such a network router, that is responsible for network routing.
Communications with the network router may be performed via a network
interface component 73. Thus, within such a networked environment 12,
e.g., the Internet, World Wide Web, LAN, or other like type of wired or
wireless network, it will be appreciated that program modules depicted
relative to the processing device 20, or portions thereof, may be stored
in the memory storage device(s) of one or more processing devices in
communication therewith.

[0014] As noted above, a customer generally interacts with wholesaler
system/server 68 to browse an electronic catalog of goods offered for
sale by the wholesaler, to order/purchase goods of interest, to request
delivery of such goods, etc. To facilitate these processes, the
wholesaler system/server 68 provides access to product related electronic
catalog functionality that is aggregated and made conveniently accessible
on a webpage. More particularly, as illustrated in the exemplary webpage
of FIG. 2, the wholesaler system/server 68 provides in direct association
with a product navigated to by a customer 202 or otherwise presented to a
customer for purchase 204, an access point 206, presented in the form of
a clickable icon, link, dropdown selection box, pop-up box, or the like,
by which the customer may navigate to or other access product related
functionality for the single, particular product so associated with the
access point 206. In this manner, each access point 206 provides access
to aggregated product related functionality by which, for example, the
customer may: cause a display of a Product Details page for its
associated product; cause a display of a Catalog Page (for example a PDF
catalog page) on which its associated product resides; cause an email or
similar message to be sent to a recipient about its associated product;
cause its associated product to be added to a to-do list; cause its
associated product to be added to a schedule for repeat purchase; cause
an MSDS sheet, if available, for its associated product to be displayed;
cause a display of listings related to its associated product; cause a
display of required and optional accessories for its associated product;
cause a display of its associated product's real-time availability; cause
a display of a list of locations at which its associated product is
available; cause a display of an indicator as to whether its associated
product has been previously purchased by the customer; cause display of
repair information for its associated product; cause a display of lot
quantity price discounts for its associated product; display of an
indicator, e.g., a checkmark, if a particular product related
functionality is available to be initiated by the wholesaler web system,
etc.

[0015] The access point 206 may be directly associated with a single,
particular product presented within a webpage by placing the access point
206 (e.g., an activatable icon or like interface convention) near or next
to its associated product. The access point 206 may then be activated to
present product related functionality by being clicked upon, moused over.
In a preferred embodiment, the access point 206 is placed in the near
vicinity of an ordering number, e.g., "4M100" or "4M096" as illustrated
in FIG. 2, to indicate the direct association between an access point 206
and the product that corresponds to that ordering number, i.e., each
single access point 206 is directly associated with a single,
corresponding product. Still further, an access point 206 offering access
to aggregated product related functionality pertaining to a single,
particular, associated product may be placed adjacent to each ordering
number on every webpage within a website. Thus, an access point 206 for a
particular product may appear multiple times throughout the website
depending upon where its related ordering number might appear, such as
for example, on webpages having: an online flier; an online promotion; a
personal order history; an invoice history; a Product Details page (as
particularly seen in FIG. 2); a search result; a Shopping Cart, Order
Form or like purchasing page/area; a product listings page or area; a
Cross Reference list; a product description page; a Catalog Page (in any
format, e.g., PDF, HTML, etc.); a selection guide; etc. It will be
understood that the product related functionality that may be made
available for accessing by the consumer need not be the same for each
product, e.g., one product might not have repair parts and, as such, the
repair part availability functionality would not be applicable for that
product. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that, when a user selects a
product related function via an access point (in the event that such
functionality is available for the corresponding product) the wholesaler
web system may initiate a performance of the selected functionality by
providing the selected functionality and related information, if any, in
a pop-up window or other area of a webpage currently being viewed, by
redirecting the browser of the client machine to a further webpage that
is directly supported by the wholesaler system, by redirecting the
browser of the client machine to a webpage that is supported by a third
party system, and/or the like.

[0016] While specific embodiments of the invention have been described in
detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various
modifications and alternatives to those details could be developed in
light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. For example, rather
than provide a separate, distinct access point icon for each product, the
access point may be integrated into a picture of the product shown in
connection with its ordering number whereupon a mouse over the picture or
click upon the picture invokes a listing of the available product related
functionality for that product. Accordingly, the particular arrangement
disclosed is meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the
scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the
appended claims and any equivalents thereof.